‘NOBODY CARES ABOUT US'

An Eastern Cape mom scorned by neighbours due to Covid-19 tells DRUM of the hospital nightmare that has followed

- MKHUSELI SIZANI

HER child’s cries broke her heart. “Mommy, please don’t leave me alone,” the two-year-old wailed, clutching at her mother.

Justine Ndube* (27) and her daughter Nonhle* tested positive for the coronavirus and their lives were turned upside down.

After being admitted to Dora Nginza Hospital in Zwide, Port Elizabeth, Justine and Nonhle were kept in separate wards and didn’t see each other for five long days.

When they were reunited in Justine’s hospital room, she was shocked at her daughter’s condition.

“Her face was covered with mosquito bites and she was so hungry. My baby cried and I cried too when I saw the condition she was in.

“I could see she was hungry, so I gave her an apple and she ate all of it, and asked for more.”

Justine’s nightmare began when she confided in her next-door neighbour that she had tested positive for the coronavirus and urged her to get herself and her children tested too.

Justine thought she was doing the right thing. After all, she and her neighbour saw each other every day and their kids played together.

That conversation led to her fearful neighbours calling the police to have her removed from the block of flats they live in, saying she was a danger.

Justine was tested at the Port Elizabeth supermarket where she works after an employee at Shoprite in Ziyabuya Shopping Centre contracted the virus.

“The day after the test, I received my results. An official from the health department promised she would take me into quarantine at the hospital, but that didn’t happen,” she tells DRUM.